TWO accidental discharges at work today!

[BigRed]

And no.....it wasn't me!

I have been working at a Cemetery for 3 years now and I knew from day one that this was bound to happen sometime.

So as some may know, some of our services include a rifle salute either by active military or retired military volunteers. Well, today we had the Legion Of Honor present to do the rifle salutes. Two of their rifles (M1 Garands) were firing the chambered round and then not loading the others. I took one look and noticed that they didn't have the reducers on the ends of their barrels so they were not developing enough pressure to cycle because they are shooting blanks. They continued to use those two rifles for the rest of the services just firing the chambered round and volley 2 and 3 would still pop off from the other 3 guys.

So I am up at a service where they weren't present and I hear one muted gunshot from inside our Administration Building..........I thinking WTF?! I then walk down towards the building to see whats going on and stop to talk to a co-worker near the building. He tells me that one of the volunteers just accidentally popped one off in the building. Just as he gets done telling me that we hear another round go off. We just shook our heads in dis-belief.....not just one round but TWO!

One of the Honor Guard members then comes storming out and says something along the lines of "that F@$%&!G guy should not be around any weapons". Turns out it was the same guy who fired both rounds...and nobody knows exactly what happened yet.

THANK GOD these M1's are just firing blanks and THANK GOD no citizens were in the office when this happened....would have been very bad especially with all the craziness nowadays.

All weapons are supposed to be unloaded before entering the building...I really don't know what happened yet as this was at the very end of the day and I haven't gotten the inside scoop yet. Don't know if this was one of the malfunctioning rifles or not. All I know is that a lot of people are pissed off and about 10 went home with ringing ears!

I think there may be some new policies enacted after this one and I'm glad nobody was hurt.....

[muggsy]

Why those M1s are loud enough to wake the dead. What was that guy thinking? :)

[OldLincoln]

He was still asleep.... check his pulse and fire up the backhoe!

[aKahrt_and_p2KT]

That's not accidental, that's neglect of knowledge and handling.

[Jeremiah/Az]

Even blanks can kill if someone is close enough in front of one.:eek:

[CJB]

I thought the reason they fired 21guns is to make sure the dead guy is really dead......

M1's are tricky to unload. Then again, I can't see them loading more than three rounds, which ought to have been fired in the salute.

The blank firing device on an M1 should also deflect gas - so if the BFA (attachement) was in place - the danger was about the same as standing next to a lawnman with a leaf blower. Something might blow into your eye, not fun.

That one guy - an actor - shot himself in the head with a .44 with "blanks" and didn't realize that more came out than sound and smoke. There's a wad - they may still use what amounts to a ******* for a wad - and there's hot gas at high speed. The ******* is almost literally that. Its a starch wafer designed to almost completely disintegrate upon firing. They may have some magic wafer or wad these days.

[Popeye]

I volunteer every week rain or shine for the last 3+ years at a local national cemetery as a member of a Honor Guard firing party. We require 30 hours of training before you become a member of the honor guard firing party. We won't even give them loaded rifles at first. They just go through the motions and knowone knows the difference. We take this very seriously as those blanks can and will hurt you or someone else if your negligent. Without the blank firing adapter on the end on the barrel it will not cycle the rounds and you'll have to hand cycle each round. We always use fully loaded clips so we know exactly how many rounds are in every rifle as we do not want the unexpected ping, and a rifle not having enough ammo in it to finish the honors properly. After two funerals we eject the 2 remaining rounds and the clip and reload another full clip. We have 3 members (and I'm one of them) on the day we do honors that take care of the rifles.
We rotate days on who is to be the armoror for that day. That armoror of the day is the sole person who is responsible for the care and loading of the rifles for that day. This way there is no confusion. The only time the other members touch and remove the safeties is during the actual honors. Then they are taken back to the Bus and handed to the armoror of the day. There is aboslutely NO excuse for negligent/accidental discharges. We have a 1,200+ honor missions under our belt so we're not new at this and still we've had a few people who thought they knew better than us on how to do things when it comes to the care and handling of these rifles. They either came around to our way of thinking or there gone. No exceptions as these are NOT toys, and we do not need or want know it all cowboys doing there own thing.
That guy should have never had that rifle in his hand,and it's only when everyone is not on the same page that dumb stuff like that happens. As far as two rounds going off he either pulled the trigger twice or that rifle could have a broken firing pin or the trigger group needs some work. Still never should have happened, and there are no excuses.

[ripley16]

Even blanks can kill if someone is close enough in front of one.:eek:

Not seen anyone killed but I can testify that a blank can mess you up! Years ago I saw a grade A Idiot shoot someone during a FTX. Put the fellow in the hospital.


One of the Honor Guard members then comes storming out and says something along the lines of "that F@$%&!G guy should not be around any weapons".

This is a fact. Give him a non-functioning rifle and have him fake it.

[AIRret]

Can't fix stupid!!

This guy needs another job or he needs to be gone!